Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, who was overthrown by a military coup in 2013, has been sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in a spy case involving Qatar.
Egypt’s Court of Cassation reduced Morsi’s sentence in the Qatar spy case to 25 years in its final ruling, from an original 40 years on Saturday.
The country’s first democratically elected president was overthrown by a US and Saudi backed military coup in July 2013 after having served just one year of a four-year term.
The Muslim Brotherhood has since been outlawed.
A government crackdown on the movement, as well as other Islamic groups, has resulted in tens of thousands of arrests and mass trials.
Morsi was tried in an Egyptian court on several charges, including one of attempting to escape from prison during the 2011 uprising against then-president Hosni Mubarak.
He was also accused of sharing state secrets with foreign powers, namely Qatar.
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His defence argued that he was merely engaging all foreign entities within the limits that any head of state would.
Morsi has been given several sentences, including life, a 20-year prison term, and the death penalty.
He appealed against those sentences, but has already had the 20-year term confirmed after being convicted for the killing of protesters during the initial anti-government demonstrations in 2012.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International have argued that the trials carried out by the military regime of “President” Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who led the coup against Morsi, have been politically motivated and violated the rights of thousands of Egyptians.
